Merry Christmas!!!

Good morning!  It was especially a good morning since both Dave and I were up before any of the kids! I contemplated waking them up, I even had time to come down stairs and get our traditional breakfast casserole made and into the oven. Seth came in about 6:45 am, the rest followed after, we started out the Christmas morning festivities at about 7:30 am.  

One of my favorite features about our house is that all the kids' bedrooms are behind ours, so we would have known had any of them tried to sneak down stairs, since they would have had to pass our room first, this feature comes in handy Christmas morning!

We started, (as we always do), with a short Christmas message.  Emphasizing the true meaning, and reason for all the fun and presents that they were about to get.

Dave and I kinda sat back and let the boys take the lead.  They all wanted to do stocking first, and seriously spent like 10-15 minutes on them, or more, proclaiming this to be the "best Christmas ever" before they even got a glimpse of what awaited them under and around the Christmas tree.

 

Noah was slightly unimpressed, but at least he was conscience, last year he slept through all the morning presents opening.

 Funny joke!  I found mystery Lego characters to go in Isaac and Seth's stockings.  Seth was not too happy about getting a fairy, while his brother (who is WAY less interested in Lego's) got a knight. :) We had a good laugh over it though! And by we I mean Dave and I.

Ta Da! I made them open the presents I meant to have them open the night before, first.  They were glad though!  Seth and Isaac got robes, and Owen got angry bird slippers, all were happy.  

Seth got a new bike, thus making the one he and Isaac were sharing, solely Isaac's. 

And now Owen had the bike with training wheels hence necessitating him having a new helmet.  

So no more sharing bikes or helmets! yeah! 

   Bey blades all around from Santa, the one thing in common on all their lists, and the only thing on Owen's list, I can't really understand why they were on his list at all, since he never plays with them, except maybe to be like his big brothers.  But he was not to be persuaded, and so Santa came through for all of them.

 Mean while Noah was content to play with the boxes of opened and unopened presents, fairly disinterested in any thing else.

This year we had the boys take turns going to the dollar store with Dad, using their own money, to buy presents.  It was cute how considerate they were! Except Owen's present of hard oatmeal cookies to Noah, all were well received.

Isaac gave Dave a present of a hug.  :) So sweet, times to remember for sure! 

Owens big gift, was and still is a big hit! :) 

 Seth's big gift was meant to be the bike, however it's the origami book and ream of paper he got that stole his attention most of the day, and a significant portion of his time since.

 Grandma and Granddad sent money for the big boys (big hit!) but for Noah, he got a ball/ hammer toy.  He actually played with it by himself even, for quite a while.

Perhaps the biggest gift of the whole day was opened just before we took a break for breakfast approximately 10:30 am, (mainly because I told Dave I was not taking ANY breaks until a specific box had been opened).  

On Dec. 13th Dave and I had our gender discovering ultra sound appointment.  However, we did not find out gender that day.  Instead we opted to wait to find out as a family Christmas morning.  To our great surprise it turns out we are having a girl!  Funny because we had just picked out the boy name we would have used two days ago.   

But we are so excited, Dave probably most of all, Owen definitely least of all, (he cried a bit saying he wanted it to be a boy, he has since come to terms with a sister though).  

The aftermath! 

For the rest of the day we hung out as a family doing various things: games, wii, snacking, and enjoying the time together.  For dinner we headed to the Dave's sister's house for a yummy turkey dinner and more hanging out and games.  So fun and relaxing, perfect for the Holiday!

In case you were wondering what Isaac's big gift was, here it is.  A remote control truck, and yes, I did get the extended warranty!  Unfortunately since the batteries had to be charged for several hours before the first use, it was the day after Christmas that we got to try it out.  As you can see by the picture, it was also a big hit!